It’s the tail end of this trip and we’re in Lowell, Mass. — Kerouac’s home. Steeped in French-Canadian culture and the mixing of different cultures gives Lowell an almost majestic variety. At the Kerouac monument on Bridge Street, students from Dr. Audrey Sprenger’s “Jack Kerouac Wrote Here” class look at the granite structures en masse, […]
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A chartered Greyhound bus swept us away from New York City this afternoon after a whirlwind three days of meandering in the cold that I’ve separated myself from since leaving the Empire State three years ago. Bill Morgan — historian, librarian, and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg-s biographer — led students from Audrey Sprenger’s “Jack Kerouac […]
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Monday, Jan. 8, and still on the train. Three hours late to Chicago, we rush to our connection train because they held it for us. Middle America unfolds as the Amtrak Zephyr cuts through the fields that don’t seem to end. It’s hard to keep track of time along these flat plains, all parched and […]
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The drive to Zege and the Monastery Ura Kidane Meret was like a time warp. I had no idea how tribal Ethiopia still was, and after each bend in the road we got deeper and deeper into a tribal culture that clearly had not changed in a thousand years. The first surprise awaiting me on […]
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I awoke the next morning with ease — jetlag has its benefits at times — and watched the sunrise over the poor, almost destitute village of Debre Markos. Women, shrouded in thin, white-gauzy dresses carried ewers on their heads, on the way to the village’s water well. I watched all this from the balcony of […]
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“Why am I short of breath,” I kept asking myself my first few hours in Ethiopia, especially the first night. The next morning over breakfast I looked closely inside my Lonely Planet and realized why: Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, has an elevation of 7,700 feet. Now, that hardly approaches the elevation of Lhasa, Tibet (11,000 […]
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The frigid Denver cold welcomed us with subtle hostility, as she couldn’t quell her winds for long enough to get all of our luggage inside. The trek from the airport to the hotel was time consuming, since they’re rather far apart, though a pleasant, scenic ride. It’s always consoling to see Burger Kings spring up […]
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My broken suitcase slid off the belt at the San Francisco International Airport, igniting a harried arrival. Navigating through the sea of taxis and shuttles to bring me south to Fisherman’s Wharf, the dense rooftops of California lined the topography like matchsticks. From the shared balcony of The Wharf Inn, we can see Alcatraz prominently […]
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I’m here. All is well. The weather is fantastic! I’m trying to figure out what to do tomorrow. I prefer to visit the capitol city at the end of my trip, but travel is slow here in Ethiopia, taking two days to go the distance between San Antonio and Dallas. (And no, I’m not making […]
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